His Heart, My Home

We have entered a brand new year, a year of yet undiscovered blessings. There are amazing faith-adventures for us to experience as the year unfolds. There are breath-taking new vistas on the horizon for us to explore.

(Please see our posts dated 12/30/24 and 1/6/25 to receive our full teaching on this subject.)

To walk in the fullest possible measure of God’s blessings in 2025 we will need our spiritual vision to be crystal clear, penetrating, radiant, sharp, vibrant, vivid, and visionary.

“The entrance of your Word gives light; it gives understanding to the simple”. (Psalm 119:130)

Our vision is the direct result of the entrance of the light of God’s Word into our lives.

The word for translated as “entrance” in this verse is the Hebrew word “pathach”. One of its meanings is “to open the ground and loosen the soil through the use of a plow.”

When I discovered this hidden meaning of “pathach”, I immediately thought of the parable of the sower. (Mark 4:13-20)

Much of the soil in the parable was incapable of receiving, nurturing and facilitating the growth of the seed because of its condition, i.e., full of stones, and thorns. But Jesus wasn’t teaching a “que sera, sera” attitude about “farming the Word.”

Every farmer knows the soil’s condition can be improved and its potential can be unlocked through diligent labor. The soil can be made fertile and productive for the kingdom of God, through plowing, opening and loosening the soil, and removing the stones, briars, and brambles.
Then the rich, renewed soil can receive the Word and release the miraculous power contained within it.

Notice how Psalm 119:130 is translated in the Passion Translation: “Break open your Word within me until revelation-light shines out! Those with open hearts are given insight into your plans.”

We could say it this way: “Those with open and receptive hearts, hearts hungry for understanding, will be filled with the light of God’s Word, and will be able to clearly see their path forward as they accomplish His plans and purposes.”

You may say, “Brother Joe, honestly, I don’t get this whole vision thing. I feel like I’m just stumbling along, bumping into things. I’m not seeing those new horizons you were talking about. Right now, I’m barely able to see my hand in front of my face.”

Thanks for your honesty. I get it. We all need to improve our spiritual vision from time to time. The good news is there is help; “corrective lens” for our sometimes blurry spiritual vision.

Start by praying the prayer below, out loud, several times a day. It has been personalized for your use as a Word-Confession:

“Father, I thank you that you give me the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of you, the eyes of my understanding being enlightened; that I may know what is the hope of my calling, what are the riches of the glory of your inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of your power to me as a believer, according to the working of your mighty power which you worked in Christ when you raised Him from the dead and seated Him at your right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And you put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. In Jesus’ name, Amen!” (Ephesians 1:15-23)

This prayer is like a plow. God responds to it by helping us break up the fallow (dormant, idle, inactive, unproductive, unused) ground of our hearts, opening them up for the sowing of His Word deep into our lives. We become open and receptive to His prolific plans and productive purposes for our lives, as they are revealed through His Word.

The following verses tell us how to plant the Word, cultivate the Word, and harvest the ripened fruit of the Word.

¹ “I will stand my watch, and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected.
² Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. ³ For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” (Habakkuk 2:1-3)

● SEE WHAT GOD WILL SAY! (Verse 1)
Notice that there is first an elevation that takes place. We come confidently before the throne of grace, where we can communicate with God directly. We come to “SEE what He will SAY.”
God imparts vision to us through His Word! And as we hold onto His Word we will SEE, not just with spiritual eyes but with our natural eyes as well. Hod says His Word will accomplish what He pleases, and succeed in the thing for which He sent it. (Isaiah 55:11)

●  WRITE THE VISION! (Verse 2)
At this point you may be wondering if your vision is God-given or just something you imagined as being God’s will for your life. I also struggled with that uncertainty until I received revelation knowledge of this scripture:

” ⁴Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. ⁵ Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.” (Psalm 37:4,5)

If you are delighting yourself in the Lord, by spending time with Him, and communicating with Him, He will place His desires into your heart, transplanting them from His heart to yours, so that His desires actually become your desires.

You will have confidence in the vision because you know it is God-ordained and God-conceived.
Write it, so that it will not fade away with time. Keep your eyes on it. Visualize yourself working toward and achieving your God-given goals. He will bring it to pass!

● ACTIVELY WAIT FOR IT! (Verse 3)
One of the biggest challenges we face is the necessity to wait for what God has promised.
We often become like little children, whining and complaining because “we want it now.”

Think of the farmer who has sown seed into his field. He knows that the seed must germinate, sprout, and then grow into maturity before he can have a harvest. But while he is waiting, he is actively working for the day that the harvest will be ripe and ready to reap.

Don’t hate the wait! Waiting time is not wasted time! The seed that has been planted in your heart is growing exponentially as you cultivate it with your confession, and water it with your worship.

Believe, exercise patience as you actively wait, and you will receive it. It will surely come!

“We do not want you to become lazy, but to be like those who believe and are patient and so receive what God has promised.”
(Hebrews 6:12)

For example, there was a four year gap between
the time I knew I was called to be a missionary and the time I actually made my first missionary journey. What did I do in that interim period? I studied the Word. I joined a church ministry team regularly visiting and praying for the sick in a local hospital. I preached in homes for the elderly. I taught in area Bible study groups.

In other words, I “actively waited” for my vision of serving the Lord as a missionary to come to pass, by serving the Lord in whatever capacity I could while I was waiting. There was progression and growth, both in my training and in my level of ministry responsibities.

²⁸ “For the soil made the seeds grow. First a leaf blade pushed through, and later the heads of wheat formed, and finally the grain ripened,        ²⁹ and then the farmer came at once with his sickle and harvested it.”
(Mark 4:28, 29, The Living Bible)

When will the vision be fully realized? According to Habakkuk 2:3 the vision is for an “appointed” time. That word is translated from the Hebrew word “mowed” which means “unstoppable”.

When a healthy baby has developed and grown in the mother’s womb for the full nine-month gestation period, its entrance into the world becomes “unstoppable”. That baby can’t stay in the womb. It just must be birthed.

So it is with the vision God has given us. The desire of His heart is conceived in us. We cherish and care for it, watering and waiting, confessing and cultivating, until the day when birth becomes unstoppable.

At last, the waiting is over and we give birth to His wonderful plan and purposes. We rejoice in the miracle of the seed that bore such abundant fruit.